You seem to be taking things to be mutually exclusive when they are not. I never said that Truman did not want to halt the spread of communism, etc. The point is that from the outset these things were done in a manner that would prevent escalation of the conflict into a war with the USSR. You provide redundant evidence stating the obvious- that Truman believed North Korea was put up to it by the USSR and the USSR's proxy offensive had to be stopped. But you have no explanation as to why, that being the case, retaliating against the USSR and China was off the table from the outset. The US intelligence memorandum shows that the US government believed that USSR was wanting to "test the strength of US commitments". If you consider that this document was of some import, then you must also consider that the American response was measured so as to send what the US government considered an appropriate message to the USSR.
That is the same reason why he refused offers of help from Jiang Jie Shi. And if you read the speech you cite you will find it is hardly accusatory towards the USSR and China at all.
"ow you attempt to accuse me of not knowing the relationship between a UN Resolution and a declaration of war - I would say you don't understand why the President of the United States decided not to ask the United States Congress for a Declaration of War. Especially given that the United States does not require nor did it require in 1950 authorization from the United Nations to declare war."
Of course the US does not need authorisation from the UNSC to declare war. However, Truman could have sought it and got it and he did not, he chose at the outset to fight what he could have made an open-ended conflict with North Korea, USSR and China under a limited mandate to defend the South.
"To futher demonstrate the scope of your generalzation, North Korea believed something else entirely when it attack South Korea then betting that the United States wouldn't use nuclear weapons. Border conflicts began happening much earlier then the full scale attack, in fact both Korea's were preparing for war since about 1948 with North Korea being more aggresive in its preparation. So North Korea wasn't betting on no nuclear engagement by the United States it was betting on something else."
Of course North Korea took into account the fact that the US is a nuclear power in planning for the war. The presumption that the US would not use nuclear weapons to defend its ally and stop communist aggression was a necessary precondition of the decision to attack.
"Doesn't sound like wanting to prevent an escalation but one of wanting the conflict to be halted in general"
In case you hadn't noticed, part of halting a conflict is to stop it escalating.
Bookmarks